Falcon 9 Reusable Takes its Second Flight Test

byNancy AtkinsononMay 2, 2014

No cows were harmed in the making of this video! SpaceX has released a video of a second test light of the Falcon 9 Reusable (FR9), and this time the rocket reached 1,000 meters – quadrupling its height from its previous test (see previous test flight below) — before returning to land softly.

The Falcon 9-R during a 10-second test in June 2013. Credit: Elon Musk on Twitter

From SpaceX: “The F9R testing program is the next step towards reusability following completion of the Grasshopper program last year. Future testing, including that in New Mexico, will be conducted using the first stage of a F9R as shown here, which is essentially a Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage with legs. F9R test flights in New Mexico will allow us to test at higher altitudes than we are permitted for at our test site in Texas, to do more with unpowered guidance and to prove out landing cases that are more-flight like.”

SpaceX has said that these first flights of F9R will have the landing legs fixed in the down position, but soon future tests will have the legs stowed against the side of the rocket and then extending them just before landing.

Yes.. noticed on earlier Grasshopper flights too. Apparently not a problemo? Paint burning off? Noted here the recent Spaceship II flight tests where the insides of the tail booms were ‘silverized/aluminized’ or coated with a mirror like surface to reflect rocket exhaust heating.